Thought Directory

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Greetings, classmates, you're probably wondering "Where in the world have you been?" The answer to that would be: right here. Life happens, and sometimes I forget, or am to busy, or other things are higher on my list of priorities (I don't remember having one of those. Perhaps I should start.) but this time, which is why I'm disappointed in myself, I have no excuse as to why I did not blog on Saturday. I simply didn't. I hope you all can forgive me. Anyways, without further delay, I will give you a summary on Friday night's swing dance adventure.

Swing dancing was, oh so, amazing. As soon as we arrived and had parked, I hopped out of the car. My big sister, Terra, then taught me the basic step right there in the parking lot before we went in to the big building. It did not take me long to learn, maybe about a total of 2 minutes actually. Terra said I was a natural, and that itself was enough to bring my usual smug smile to my face. We went inside, and it was pretty hot in there. I mean actually hot. It, seriously, was burning up. Only two people were dancing (and they seemed pretty dang experienced might I add). So me, Hannah, Terra, and A.J. (Scott didn't make it) took a seat and waited for the lessons to begin. When they finally did... Well I will admit freely, I was so very nervous, but I got up from my seat and stood in the line, side-by-side, with the other guys. The lessons began and we were taught the basic step, the Jitterbug. As the night went on, I truly was a natural, or at least, that's what I was told. I danced with many girls, yes, and had a ton of fun. I also saw my good friend, Wesley, whom I introduced to everyone.

All-in-all, swing dance, was a load of fun and a might even be going back again this Friday.
Anyways, that'll be all classmates.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Welcome to my blog, again, classmates. Yesterday, I momentarily forgot about swing dancing tonight, and was all "Friday just get outta the way! Let it be Saturday!" Oh would ya look at there.. it rhymed.. hey I'm a poet and didn't know it, I could make a rhyme anytime. Har har. Anyways, sorry for the moment of insanity, it's nice to have moments like those, it keeps you sane. Oh that's new... Insanity keeping you sane? Ok, enough of me going on about this. As I was saying: Then I realized that I was going swing dancing for my first time tonight, and was all "Nevermind, Friday, stay where you are!" So today we have an extraordinarily meaty blog post because of the following: I finish my 30 question "Get To Know Me" Q&A, I give you a short summary on the new book I've been reading (Among Malay Pirates by G. A. Henty), and I go on and on abut how excited I am for swing dancing tonight (Oh, you'll so enjoy that, I know).
So without further ado I give you the final 10 questions of my Q&A:

Q21: Most hated veggie?
A21: Carrots... Blegh.

Q22: Favorite pianist?
A22: Yiruma

Q23: What do you do when you're bored?
A23: Let's not go there... No I'm kidding. Play the piano, listen to music, get on the computer, etc. All in all, is this question even viable? What do I do when I'm BORED? If we're doing something we're not really bored right?

Q24: Athletic or Intellectual?
A24: Intellectual, most definitely. Though I do enjoy sports and what not, I think a strong mind is as important as a strong body.

Q25: Favorite vacation spot?
A25: Disney world. Been there so many times, hope to go more than that in the future.

Q26: Favorite season?
A26: Winter, my friend, winter. The season to be jolly, for most people, is usually just the season for me to continue down my path to insanity, though.

Q27: Favorite dessert?
A27: Tiramisu from Jesse's restaurant, which brings us to Q28.

There ya have it!
Oh, I'm so excited for swing dancing that I could just dance. In fact, I will. One second... Ok I'm back, and I won't be doing that again. Anyways here's my short summary on that book I'm reading:

AMONG MALAY PIRATES by George Alfred Henty.

Once upon a time there were these two guys sitting on a boat-dock talking and wishing for something interesting to happen, when suddenly this big ship comes by, and, because of the pilot (who was distracted by the shiny birds), it crashed into a canoe that was drifting slowly in front of it. The boat was severely damaged and the crew was scattered into the water, but because they could swim like fish they were ok. The real problem was that the captain (who is badly injured) and his daughter (who is very young and cannot yet swim well) were still in the water. So the men jumped at the ready, took a small raft, and, to make a longer piece of the story short, they successfully rescue the captain (who is, apparently, also a tribal chief) and his daughter (also a tribal princess). His daughter is returned safely to the chief, who then thanks profusely saying he owes them his and his daughter's lives. The doctor comes in and tells the chief that if he is not quiet for a few weeks then his bones will heal slower. After a few weeks, the chief (Hassan) is ready to go and warns the men of the other tribal chief the men were assigned to protect, that that chief attacks and raids their lands and keeps their slaves as his own when they escape to his land.

I should have put a few spoiler warning signs before that. And because of this, I will go no further at the moment. Next week I'll write a continuation summary on the next chapters.
Now for those of you who didn't know, my birthday was on Monday. I got a lot of gifts including some money, which I used to buy an over-shirt for swing dancing tonight. I'll be posting pics of myself and other's on my Saturday blog post, but until then..

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ah yes, I AM going to finish yesterday's Q&A, but also I will notify you that I am changing these four posts (yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after that) to a four day blogathon! Ending on Saturday with a summary on tomorrow night's journey to Pensacola Swing. Yes, I'm going swing dancing for my first time, but I'm not alone! I'm going with my big sis (Terra), my lil sis (Hannah at As Time Goes By), my big brother (A.J.), and Scott (a good friend of Terra's). But I'll save the ranting on about that subject for Friday and Saturday.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Greetings, classmates. It's been a while since I last posted, and I have no excuses other than disinterest. Pretty sad, is it not? Anyways... I realized that many of you know nothing more than what you can glean from my posts about me. So my idea was simply the following: a Q&A. With question's that I think are essential to knowing me I'm not going to go into detail on how I thought of it and what not, so I'll skip to the meat of it all. Here goes nothing.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Well, as you all might expect from me, I'm going to once again give a commentary on this week's Torah. Not today though, that's work for Friday. Oh, but that's not all! Friday is a very important day. The day of atonement. Yom Kippur. It's a day where the focus is completely on G-d. A day to truly repent. Is there anyone who is sinless? G-d is, but any below Him are not sinless. And are we incapable of taking one day that he set aside for us to honor Him, to repent, to better ourselves? No, we are not. We are very capable indeed. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting. Fasting brings us closer to the L-rd. For those of you who need to know more about true and false fasting, I recommend reading this week's Torah. It is only two parts long- the Torah and the Haf-Torah. The scriptures to read are as follows: Leviticus 16; Isaiah 57:14- 58:14. Naturally, repentance, honoring G-d, and bettering ourselves should come everyday without fail. But Yom Kippur is especially important. It's like this, "I expect you to do this everyday but if it's not done this certain day I have especially laid out for it to be done on, then it is exceptionally bad." Yes, quite like that indeed. This Friday is a holy, holy day. Therefore I challenge everyone who reads this to take Friday to sit down, repent, and be with G-d this one day. Yom Kippur is also a day to study G-d's Word. So sit down and read up on the Torah, scriptures, Bible commentaries, Bible-study sections, anything of the sort. Make Friday holy by following G-d's Word. And remember to fast from 6:00 Thursday evening to 6:00 Friday evening. Be ready for a new commentary (I'm love giving Torah commentaries and I thought it would be special to give one on a holy day as part of my studying and to help people in their studying). Anyways, I'll be off. Thanks for reading.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Ever found a book that just made you feel like young. In this day and age kids just grow up to fast. Like me... I feel too old. I wanna grow DOWN (if possible please do notify me)! This book made me realize that kids even just two or three decades ago grew much slower and did not have the weight of worldly troubles on their shoulders. I don't know what happened to standards. During the last two decades it seems we've lost them doesn't it?Anyways, though I am just fourteen, I feel like I'm aging just too fast, and this book makes me feel like I'm one of those kids in the 50's or 60's. Cuz that's what kids my age read back then. OK so the story is about a young inventor (eighteen to be exact) named Tom Swift Jr. (his father's name is also named Tom Swift) who has designed and built a a huge flying lab called The Sky Queen. It has many area's inside including many labs and a galley. As the story starts a spy enters Swift Enterprises (the Swift's place of business and inventing) and holds a gun to the night guard's (Roberts') head. Stealing the plans for the new invention, super-Geiger counter, he makes a swift (ha-ha pun) escape. Tom and his father found out about this the next day and they explain why the super-Geiger counter is completely important and crucial to their mission, it ticks as an alarm when it has successfully found traces of the substance it was made to find. Tom reports this to the police. The next day Tom and everyone head up in the Tom's personal plane and, upon testing the super-Geiger counter, realize that it is not a success in the slightest. Tom and his best pal, Bud, stay up most of he night working on an idea Tom had to make a machine that will work a million times more successfully than the super-Geiger counter. Tom's mother calls and they call it a night after finishing the machine up. They test the machine the next day and it is a complete success!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

This week's Torah was excellent and really drove me to write my thoughts on it here. This week's Torah consisted of Moses completing the Torah script and "having it placed in the Holy of Holies next to the Ark of the Covenant", says the summary I read. It also tells that Moses(Hebrew- Moshe) requested of Joshua, his soon-to-be successor, to hold a meeting on the Feast of Booths(Hebrew- Sukkot; aka Feast of Tabernacles), where there will be a public reading of the Torah and a renewal of the Covenant (Mosaic Covenant). This is Vayelech, "and he went". He also requests that all of Israel take up the Covenant. So that explains why Sukkot is a renewal of our Covenant with G-d. Now if we look at it from this context: Yeshua(Jesus) was born on the Feast of Booths, therefore when he was born there was a renewal of the Covenant. Anyways, Moses says that if the Israelites sin, they will go into exile, and only through repentance will they be allowed their city again. This is Nitzavim, "standing". The portion Vayelech is derived from the verse "So Moses went and spoke these words to all of Israel". Nitzavim is derived from the verse "You stand, all of you, before the L-rd your G-d". In some years, including this one, these two portions are read together.